Getty Realty Properties on Sale Block

Landlord selling 160 former GPMI properties, terminals

JERICHO, N.Y. -- Following on the heels of a bankruptcy filing by its largest client, Getty Realty Corp. is seeking buyers for about 160 gas station/convenience-store properties and nine petroleum distribution terminals.

The sale was announced in Getty Realty’s fourth-quarter 2011 earnings report released this past week.

In the report, the company announced a net loss for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2011, of $19.5 million, or $0.58 per share, which decreased by $32.0 million as compared to earnings of $12.5 million for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2010.

A majority of the loss was related to its client, Getty Petroleum Marketing Inc. (GPMI), filing for bankruptcy protection during the quarter, and Getty Realty subsequently terminating its master lease with GPMI effective Dec. 12.

“Earnings from continuing operations … were materially adversely impacted by $8.7 million and $19.8 million of noncash charges, respectively, recorded to reflect an increase in the company's straight-line rent reserve related to the company's master lease with [GPMI] and $10.3 million for bad debts, legal fees and other professional fees related to the [GPMI] bankruptcy,” Getty Realty reported.

The retail properties being sold, as reported Friday in a Morgan Keegan/CSP Daily News Flash, have previously had their underground storage tanks removed.

As a possible alternative to selling the sites, Getty Realty may seek to re-lease some of the properties and terminals. “While the company has dedicated considerable effort designed to increase sales and leasing activity, it cannot predict the timing or the terms of any such dispositions,” it said in a press release.

As of Dec. 31, 2011, Getty Petroleum Marketing was in possession of 797 properties pursuant to a master lease representing approximately 69% of the Getty Realty's 1,149 owned and leased properties. Getty Petroleum Marketing does not itself directly operate the retail motor fuel and convenience-store properties subject to the master lease. Rather, Getty Petroleum Marketing generally subleases the retail properties to subtenants that either operate their gas stations, convenience stores, automotive repair services or other businesses at the properties or are petroleum distributors who operate the properties directly or sublet the properties to the operators.

East Meadow, N.Y.-based Getty Petroleum Marketing is an independent marketer of petroleum products in the northeastern United States. A former subsidiary of Russian oil company LUKOIL, its primary asset was the more than 800 stations located on properties owned by Getty Realty.

Jericho, N.Y.-based Getty Realty is the largest publicly traded real-estate investment trust (REIT) in the United States specializing in ownership, leasing and financing of retail motor fuel and convenience store properties and petroleum distribution terminals.